Electronics and electrical components generate heat when they operate. In at least some applications heat generated by electrical components can cause damage to those components if the heat becomes excessive. Component heating problems are exacerbated when electronic components are operated in extremely hot environments and/or when the components need to be enclosed (e.g., in a sealed compartment) during operation. For instance, in military vehicles that operate in desert conditions, ambient temperatures in excess of 100 degrees are typical and components often have to be enclosed to protect the components from dust, sand and other airborne debris.
To deal with electronics heating problems, the electronics industry has developed various types of electronics cooling systems including, among others, liquid cooling systems. Typical liquid cooling systems include mechanical tubing or pipe configurations that form channels for directing cooling liquid along paths adjacent heat generating components. Heat from components is dissipated into the cooling liquid and is carried away from the components that generate the heat.
While liquid cooling systems have worked well in many applications, unfortunately the costs associated with manufacturing the mechanical liquid channeling configurations in both materials and labor has been excessive for many applications. To this end, see FIGS. 10 and 11 in U.S. Pat. No. 7,129,808 which issued on Oct. 31, 2006 and that is titled “Core Cooling For Electrical Components” which illustrates a complex circuitous copper tubing arrangement for delivering cooling liquid to components to be cooled where the arrangement includes a large number of components and requires a large amount of skilled labor to assemble.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for configuring liquid cooling systems for electronic and other heat generating components that includes components that are simple to manufacture and that are easy and quick to connect so that minimal skill and time is required to configure cooling assemblies. It would be advantageous if such components were able to be used to configure many different cooling assemblies.